Crazy, Not Insane
Alex Gibney just never stops working, does he? I literally just watched his stealth COVID documentary, “Totally Under Control,” last month, and this month, he has one about a forensic psychiatrist, and her research into the psychology of murderers that is as compelling, if not a little more so. “Crazy, Not Insane” feels like it could be an Errol Morris film, in a way, as it looks at the career, and controversial findings of Dorothy Lewis, but the film is about more than just her; it looks at how forensic research in studying the human mind has unlocked several tricky questions about the justice system, sanity, and what makes a murderer. It’s a fascinating glimpse at the inner workings of the human mind.
We all feel like we can spot someone who is mentally unbalanced in their behavior, but is humanity really that easy to read? Of course not. Our natural tendency is to link mental instability with violence, but it’s just not that simple. One of the issues I had with “Joker” was that it seemed to just gloss over societal conditions and trauma and paint Arthur Fleck as “one bad day” away from becoming a sociopath and killer. The ways that Dorothy Lewis studies her patients as a forensic psychiatrist paints a troubling picture of humanity, and leads to some difficult questions upon how we dispense justice. Throughout “Crazy, Not Insane’s” 118 minutes, we look at some of the most famous cases that Lewis was a part of, hear her thoughts, and read her words, both in retrospect and from the time.
The film begins with Lewis recalling watching The Nuremberg Trials when she was younger. That was one of the main flashpoints for her of wondering about the psyche of murderers. Is anyone truly capable of becoming a Nazi, of committing such atrocities? This opening is interesting, and probably one of the main reasons for Gibney to make this film now- we’ve seen widespread radicalization into white supremacist thought, and violent acts, in the past several years- why? Is it because of someone has tapped into an inherent bigotry that person carries? Is it because they have been abused by loved ones? Is it because of physical impairments they have endured over the years? And what do these factors teach us about that individual, or society in general. Lewis is a proponent of Dissociative Identity Disorder, one of the most controversial and polarizing psychological disorders in the discipline. Do multiple personalities actually exist? Lewis has seen possible evidence of that being the case, but even then, is that a rationale justification for murder? Of course, no justification for killing is a good one, but how do we treat that? How do we punish it? And why do we feel like the death penalty is justified when it comes to punishing murderers? All of these questions are brought up in the film, and not all of the answers are clear cut. If I’m being honest, Gibney’s talents are not as well served by the ambiguous answers of this film; he’s much sharper where the results of his study are more crystal clear. That doesn’t mean “Crazy, Not Insane” isn’t worth watching, however.
